Posted by Doug Turetsky, November 8, 2012 In the decade since the terrorist attacks on 9/11, New York City has faced several other disasters that drew federal aid, such as last year’s Tropical Storm Irene and the blizzard and tornadoes of 2010. As IBO’s George Sweeting points out, the city received federal aid for a [...]
Posted by Nashla Rivas Salas and Doug Turetsky, April 28, 2011 There aren’t many government programs that pump millions of dollars into some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods and give residents of those neighborhoods a say in how that money is spent. The Community Services Block Grant, a program whose lineage dates back to the [...]
Posted by Kerry Spitzer, March 9, 2010 Every year the same story is told during the New York City Housing Authority’s (NYCHA) City Council budget hearings: There is a multimillion dollar budget gap in NYCHA’s operating budget, due primarily to the fact that neither the city nor the state provide operating funding for the 21 [...]
Posted by Ana M. Ventura, November 9, 2009 A number of fiscal mavens have voiced concerns in recent months that the city’s capital budget is too big and unaffordable. These concerns have not escaped the notice of Mayor Bloomberg, who has sought to reduce the amount the city spends on debt service—the interest and principal [...]
Posted by Paul Lopatto, October 22, 2009 Earlier this week it was widely reported that the number of homeless families had hit a record high in the city. Less noticed has been another record increase: As of August there were nearly 1.6 million New Yorkers on the food stamp rolls. The rapid increase in food [...]
Posted by Eldar Beiseitov, April 27, 2009 While the Mayor has focused much attention in recent weeks on the municipal unions’ reluctance to agree to more than $700 million in savings outlined in the Preliminary Budget, there’s another big hole to fill in the budget plan. Piggy-backing on proposals made by Governor David Paterson, the [...]
Posted by Alan Treffeisen, March 30, 2009 Facing a nearly $1 billion operating budget hole this year, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s board decided last week to hike mass transit fares and raise tolls on the agency’s bridges and tunnels. The MTA board also approved an array of subway and bus service cuts. As the MTA’s [...]
Posted by George Sweeting, February 9, 2009 One of the most eye-popping numbers in the Mayor’s budget presentation last month was the threat of 14,000 teacher layoffs. Unless the state restores school aid that the Governor has proposed cutting to help solve Albany’s own budget woes, the Mayor said the teachers would have to go. [...]
Posted by J.W. Mason, January 16, 2009 As many Capitol Hill watchers expected, the latest version of a federal stimulus bill from the House includes significant assistance to state and local government. Some of the aid would come from Washington picking up a bigger share of Medicaid costs, just as it did temporarily in the [...]